Release of additional inflammatory cytokines, growth factors, and myofibroblast proliferation, smooth muscle hyperplasia and hypertrophy, and inflammatory cell infiltration. Two secreted factors, transforming growth factor b1 (TGF-b1) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), are widely regarded as universal mediators of fibrosis and organ remodeling. TGF-b1 has long been regarded as the most potent stimulator of collagen synthesis during lung fibrosis [16,17]. Cell-based studies have shown that CTGF regulates multiple processes that contribute to lung fibrosis, and data from animal models of human disease also reported the importance of CTGF in fibrosis [18]. However, the detailed correlation between obesity, airway inflammation and remodeling remains to be elucidated. The mechanistic basis of obesity and asthma has been thoroughly 
investigated by Shore and her colleagues through using several different mice models of obesity [19?3]. In these studies, 22948146 either genetic ob/ob, db/db, carboxypeptidase E-deficient (Cpefat) mice or high fat diet Tartrazine induced obese mice exhibited 15481974 innate AHR. Although ob/ob and db/db mice are extensively used for studies of obesity-related pathophysiology, mutations in the leptin gene (ob/ob) or its receptor (db/db) are rarely described in humans. In fact, high-fat diet induced obesity better resembles the development of human obesity. However, high-fat diet alters pulmonary responses to allergen [24], which makes it hard to distinguish the individual effects of obesity or high-fat diet while in study of increased asthmatic susceptibility in obese mice. Therefore, it is necessary to determine whether AHR occurs in other mice models of obesity. Previous studies showed that early neonatal overfeeding has significant impacts on the long-term regulation of body weight and contributes to the development of obesity in adulthood. One well-established model to study the effect of neonatal overfeeding is the manipulation of the size of mice litters at the early stage of life. When pups are raised in small litter, e.g. 3 pups/Methionine enkephalin manufacturer litter presumably milk intake in each individual pup is greater than its control that is raised in a normal sized litter with around 10 pups/litter. These chronic neonatal overfeeding mice are characterized by persistent overweight and early onset of obesity, hyperleptinemia, hyperinsulinemia, glucose intolerance, impaired hypothalamic feeding circuitry, impaired norepinephrine turnover and brown adipose tissue thermogenesis 
[25?8]. In the present study, we investigate the short-term and long-term effects of neonatal overfeeding on pulmonary function and inflammation.Animals and ProtocolsMale offspring from ICR (Jackson Laboratories, Vital River, Beijing) pregnant mice were used in our study. Since consistent maternal care is critical for the outcome of this study, we chose the ICR mouse strain which is recognized for its excellent nurturing abilities and care of offspring. All animals were maintained under a 12 hr light/12 hr dark (lights on at 0700 h) cycle and constant temperature (2362uC). Pregnant ICR mice were maintained on standard chow diets (containing 10 fat, 70 carbohydrates and 20 protein by energy, supplied by Shanghai Laboratory Animal Center (SLAC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China), housed individually and monitored closely for the day of birth, which was considered as postnatal day 0 (P0). Neonatal overfeeding was induced by reducing litter size to 3 pups per litter (sma.Release of additional inflammatory cytokines, growth factors, and myofibroblast proliferation, smooth muscle hyperplasia and hypertrophy, and inflammatory cell infiltration. Two secreted factors, transforming growth factor b1 (TGF-b1) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), are widely regarded as universal mediators of fibrosis and organ remodeling. TGF-b1 has long been regarded as the most potent stimulator of collagen synthesis during lung fibrosis [16,17]. Cell-based studies have shown that CTGF regulates multiple processes that contribute to lung fibrosis, and data from animal models of human disease also reported the importance of CTGF in fibrosis [18]. However, the detailed correlation between obesity, airway inflammation and remodeling remains to be elucidated. The mechanistic basis of obesity and asthma has been thoroughly investigated by Shore and her colleagues through using several different mice models of obesity [19?3]. In these studies, 22948146 either genetic ob/ob, db/db, carboxypeptidase E-deficient (Cpefat) mice or high fat diet induced obese mice exhibited 15481974 innate AHR. Although ob/ob and db/db mice are extensively used for studies of obesity-related pathophysiology, mutations in the leptin gene (ob/ob) or its receptor (db/db) are rarely described in humans. In fact, high-fat diet induced obesity better resembles the development of human obesity. However, high-fat diet alters pulmonary responses to allergen [24], which makes it hard to distinguish the individual effects of obesity or high-fat diet while in study of increased asthmatic susceptibility in obese mice. Therefore, it is necessary to determine whether AHR occurs in other mice models of obesity. Previous studies showed that early neonatal overfeeding has significant impacts on the long-term regulation of body weight and contributes to the development of obesity in adulthood. One well-established model to study the effect of neonatal overfeeding is the manipulation of the size of mice litters at the early stage of life. When pups are raised in small litter, e.g. 3 pups/litter presumably milk intake in each individual pup is greater than its control that is raised in a normal sized litter with around 10 pups/litter. These chronic neonatal overfeeding mice are characterized by persistent overweight and early onset of obesity, hyperleptinemia, hyperinsulinemia, glucose intolerance, impaired hypothalamic feeding circuitry, impaired norepinephrine turnover and brown adipose tissue thermogenesis [25?8]. In the present study, we investigate the short-term and long-term effects of neonatal overfeeding on pulmonary function and inflammation.Animals and ProtocolsMale offspring from ICR (Jackson Laboratories, Vital River, Beijing) pregnant mice were used in our study. Since consistent maternal care is critical for the outcome of this study, we chose the ICR mouse strain which is recognized for its excellent nurturing abilities and care of offspring. All animals were maintained under a 12 hr light/12 hr dark (lights on at 0700 h) cycle and constant temperature (2362uC). Pregnant ICR mice were maintained on standard chow diets (containing 10 fat, 70 carbohydrates and 20 protein by energy, supplied by Shanghai Laboratory Animal Center (SLAC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China), housed individually and monitored closely for the day of birth, which was considered as postnatal day 0 (P0). Neonatal overfeeding was induced by reducing litter size to 3 pups per litter (sma.